This is the first part of a series of articles chronicling my ChicagoCon experience. I use these words specifically, because this is meant to give you a view of ChicagoCon from my perspective. So I will readily admit that it is a biased opinion. But I also wanted to give you a look into some of the ideas behind how we came to make the decisions we did and also a behind the scenes look into running a complex event.

ChicagoCon 2007 is a unique event with its focus clearly on the students, their education and career development. We obviously want them to gain knowledge while going through the classes, but we also want them to see a wider view. With that in mind, we intentionally crammed some extracurriculars into the event like morning keynotes, evening presentations and hacking contests. This way, you can take what you learn in class, get industry insights from the speakers, compare that to what your other classmates are doing in the real world and eventually go back to your place of work with practical ideas that can be truly implemented. It's a lofty goal, but worthy of effort.